Agency in the Age of AI

TL;DR

This paper discusses the societal impact of generative AI, emphasizing the importance of understanding agency to evaluate its harms and benefits, and calls for theoretical and modeling advancements.

Contribution

It proposes using the concept of agency as a framework to analyze AI's societal effects and highlights the need for theoretical and modeling progress in this area.

Findings

Agency is a useful lens for studying AI impacts.

Advancing agency theory can improve understanding of AI harms and benefits.

Requires development of agent-based models incorporating agency.

Abstract

There is significant concern about the impact of generative AI on society. Modern AI tools are capable of generating ever more realistic text, images, and videos, and functional code, from minimal prompts. Accompanying this rise in ability and usability, there is increasing alarm about the misuses to which these tools can be put, and the intentional and unintentional harms to individuals and society that may result. In this paper, we argue that \emph{agency} is the appropriate lens to study these harms and benefits, but that doing so will require advancement in the theory of agency, and advancement in how this theory is applied in (agent-based) models.